Looking for the best doorbell camera… preferably no subscription required.
Also, is wireless better? It seems like it would be?
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Everyone’s saying Reolink, but one thing people often forget to mention about the Reolink is that it doesn’t have support for existing doorbell chimes. You have to plug in a speaker to an outlet and that’s what “rings”. If you want one that supports the existing doorbell chime, the Amcrest AD410 is a good option. You can integrate it in HA with the Dahua integration in HACS.
Check out the Reolink POE doorbell cameras. Great integration with Home Assistant, mine has been rock solid since install.
Do you have the doorbell button press and two way audio setup in HA? I haven’t figured this out yet.
Not yet, and I probably won’t. I’ve never actually needed to talk to anyone through my doorbell, and if I want to I could just use the app.
I have my home dashboard mounted next to my front door, so I’m working on an automation that will swap it to the camera view as soon as someone pushes the button - like a digital peep-hole
I use the app as well. Half the time I’m not home so it’s been useful to have two way talk thru my VPN.
I thought about doing something similar with a screen by the door!
To me, wired with POE feels like the best option (don’t need to charge it and the connection is more reliable than WiFi); assuming that it is practical to get an ethernet cable to the destination.
I have a unifi g4 pro, I really like it.
Also, is wireless better?
Wireless is definitely better than drop frames, lose network connection, lose audio, and etc.
Do you mean wired power or internet? If you can get both, that’s going to be the most stable… but most of the battery powered and wifi doorbells are fine. If you have strong wifi and don’t mind charging every few months, you can pretty much go with whatever has the features you want and not worry about connectivity.
Is wired better if wifi isn’t super great?
i’m assuming you mean wired internet and not wired power, right? because you can get A) wired power and wifi, b) wired power & wired internet (POE), or C) battery + wifi. If your wifi isn’t great by the door, I would see if you can get by with an extender before you run cable. if running cable isn’t a big deal, that will be a much better end result.